Growing up in the 80s there weren't a lot of gay role models on TV. There had been Jody on Soap, but I was a little young for that. I guess there were sporadic gay characters on the hour dramas I didn't watch (I think there was a dramatic gay AIDS plot on St. Elswhere), but there were no openly gay characters on the shows I watched.
But there was one who never came out. I speak, of course, of KITT: The Knight Industries Two Thousand, the talking car from Knight Rider. I know I'm not the only person to have this theory (I even found an article claiming that David Hasselhoff said he was gay, but I don't know if it's real).
If you are dubious, think about it and then find a rerun. He has a vaguely effeminate voice, and he's pretty much in love with Michael. In addition, he gets obviously jealous when Michael hooks up (which is not uncommon). Not to mention the bitchy sarcasm.
One of the reasons the new show failed (despite the über gorgeous cast) was that KITT was played like HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey—Val Killmer was terrible as his voice. (Horrible writing didn't help either.)
I'm glad "the kids" today have better role models than my generation had!
No comments:
Post a Comment